Personal identification of food and beverage containers has heretofore been proposed, illustrative of which are the proposals of U.S. Pat. No. 2,024,889 granted to A. Simeone Dec. 17, 1935; U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,468 granted to David Wolf on Jul. 16, 1968; U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,916 granted to Edgar O. Bartolucci on Aug. 17, 1976; U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,240 granted to George I. Goodwin May 20, 1980; U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,804 granted to Antony-Euclid C. Villa-Real on Sep. 7, 1982; U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,139 granted to M. David Ricks on Jul. 26, 1988; U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,457 granted to Donald O. Chandler on Feb. 20, 1990; U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,077 granted to Howard L. Rose on Feb. 20, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,815 granted to Michael A. Lang on Sep. 1, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,581 granted to Douglas Vagedes on Nov. 24, 1998; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,777 granted to Boman K. Najmi on Dec. 8, 1998.
Although such proposals have addressed selected problems encountered in providing personal identification for containers of alimentary products (e.g., food and beverages), there have continued to be certain drawbacks to their use. Thus, apparently for a variety of reasons such as cost or cumbersomeness in use, they have not found popular expression in the market place. Accordingly, there has continued to be a need for improved and more attractive product identification devices that are simple, easy to use, and cost effective.